Method for producing a contactless ticket and ticket and ticket obtained by means of said method

ABSTRACT

A multi-step method for producing contactless tickets or cards, the tickets or cards including a chip ( 24 ) which is connected to an antenna ( 10 ) on a paper carrier. The method includes: printing the antennae in series on the paper carrier strip using a silkscreen ink; fixing a chip to each ticket by connecting bond pads of the chip to the antennas&#39; bond pads ( 14, 16 ); and covering the paper strip, including the silkscreen-printed antenna and the corresponding chip, with an adhesive paper strip. After each step, the paper carrier strip is wound up before the next step is begun. Each of the silkscreen-printed antennae is coated with a protective layer ( 12 ) to prevent silkscreen ink from being transferred to the back of the paper carrier strip during the successive winding-up following each step.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a ticketprovided with a chip and a screen-printed antenna and relates inparticular to a method of manufacturing a contactless ticket and theticket produced from this method.

BACKGROUND ART

Contactless, radio frequency identification (RFID)-type electronictickets more commonly known as contactless readable tickets orcontactless readable tags are equipped with an antenna and an integratedcircuit in the form of an electronic chip connected to the antenna, theunit being produced on a flexible support. Contactless-type electronictickets can remotely exchange and transmit data via inductive coupling,by means of their antenna using a reader also equipped with an antenna.The flexible support is made of paper, card or plastic. In an economicalembodiment of the tickets, the antenna is printed by screen printing.Screen printing consists in printing the antenna coils on anelectrically insulating substrate, preferably made of paper, using aconductive ink, for example, made up mainly of silver powder. It ispossible to use a continuous manufacturing method to manufacture ticketsequipped with screen-printed antennas.

Thus, the applicant has personally developed a manufacturing method inwhich screen printing of the antenna is carried out on one side of anendless paper strip, the width of which allows the manufacture of one ormore tickets. On the reverse side of the paper strip to the side bearingthe antenna, markers made up of printed marks or holes are made in thefeed direction of the paper strip such that the area corresponding toeach ticket and possibly the rows of tickets in the width of the paperstrip can be located. These markers are essential to the method forcontinuously manufacturing the tickets. Indeed, at each ticketmanufacturing stage, since the paper strip is completely unwound thenrewound so that it can be handled and stored between two manufacturingsteps, the exact position of each ticket is located. Thus, the method ofcontinuously manufacturing the contactless tickets is broken down into anumber of steps consisting of printing the client illustration, printingthe antenna, installing the chip and carrying out the final laminationwhich consists in depositing the layer preprinted with the clientillustration on the ticket side bearing the antenna and the chip.Printing the antenna requires several runs. Indeed, the production ofthe antenna consists in printing the coils of the antenna forming aconductive spiral, producing a dielectric strip perpendicular to thecoils and printing a conductive ink bridge on the dielectric stripallowing one of the ends of the antenna to be connected to theconnection terminal which will be used to provide for electricalconnection with the chip.

The step consisting in positioning the electronic chip on the tickets atthe location provided in order to be connected to the antenna is anessential step in the manufacture of the ticket and requires a highdegree of precision. The chip is placed exactly at the desired place asa result of the markers already set out on the opposite side of thesupport of the antenna and of optic detection of the markers. However,positioning may be carried out wrongly and, in this case, the connectionof the chip to the antenna is defective. The markers are also used forcutting the strip into unit tickets.

The major disadvantage of this type of continuous manufacturing methodis that the silver ink making up the antenna is transferred by frictiononto the back of the paper strip during the successive windings andunwindings which are necessary in order to complete ticket manufacture.When the back of the paper strip is preprinted with the clientillustration, a mark appears, which can be seen by the naked eye, on theclient illustration, which impairs the final aesthetic quality of theticket. Furthermore, the transfer of ink could also cover the markers onthe back of the paper strip in the instance where these are in the areaof the antenna and thus hamper the optical location carried out duringthe ticket manufacturing and distribution steps. Thus, the steps whichconsist in positioning the chip and cutting the tickets could fail andcause a reduction in the ticket production output.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aim of the invention is therefore to overcome these disadvantages byproviding a method of continuously manufacturing contactless tickets onan endless strip allowing for the production of the antenna byconductive ink screen printing without the ink being transferred byfriction onto the back of the strip and without adding additional ticketmanufacturing steps.

The object of the invention is therefore a method for the multi-stepmanufacture of contactless tickets or cards including a chip connectedto an antenna on a paper support, and consisting in printing in series,using screen printing ink, the antennas on the paper support strip, infixing a chip on each ticket by connecting the bonding pads of the chipto the bonding pads of the antenna and covering the paper stripcomprising the screen-printed antennas and the corresponding chips withan adhesive paper strip, each of the steps being followed by the windingof the paper support strip before moving on to the next step. The methodincludes a step for covering each of the screen-printed antennas with aprotection layer for preventing the screen printing ink from beingtransferred onto the back of the paper support strip during thesuccessive windings thereof after each step.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The aims, objects and characteristics of the invention will become moreclearly apparent on reading the following description with reference tothe drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows the antenna of a contactless ticket which has been producedby printing a screen printing ink,

FIG. 2 shows the antenna covered with a dielectric protection layerproduced according to the principles of the invention, and

FIG. 3 shows the ticket with the screen-printed antenna covered with thedielectric layer following the step of fixing the chip by connection tothe ends of the antenna.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the contactless ticket manufacturing method according to theinvention, each step consists in carrying out an identical operation onan endless strip, the width of which allows for the manufacture of oneor more tickets at the same time (for example 6 tickets). When all ofthe steps have been carried out, cutting takes place in order to obtainindividual tickets.

Prior to the first step of the manufacturing method, a reel of a lengthof a plain paper strip is installed in the manufacturing machine. Thereel is unwound in order to carry out the first step with consists inproducing antenna 10 by screen printing using a silver-based inkillustrated in FIG. 1.

The next step consists in depositing, still by screen printing, aprotective layer 12 which covers the antenna 10. In the preferredembodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, the protective layer is applied overthe whole surface of antenna 10 so as to cover the latter. However, anembodiment can be designed in which the protective layer only coversantenna turns, that is to say its exact imprint. Still according to thepreferred embodiment, the protective layer is a dielectric layer.

The purpose of this protective layer is to prevent the frictionaltransfer of the ink making up antenna 10 which has just been fixed ontothe paper strip during the subsequent windings of the strip which followthe screen printing step.

As mentioned above, such a transfer impairs the final aesthetic qualityof the ticket and is likely to cover the markers set out on the back ofthe strip and therefore to hamper the optical location thereof.

This dielectric layer has two features. Firstly, it must not cover ends14, 16 of the antenna which will be used as connections with the chip.Secondly, this single-step screen printing of the dielectric is not thesame for a rectangle 18 onto which, in the following step, a conductivestrip for connecting end 14 of the antenna to the bonding pad of thechip will be printed.

Dielectric layer 12 is preferably printed during the same step as theantenna is screen printed to thereby prevent the transfer of the inkonto the back of the ticket. However, such printing of the dielectriclayer could also be carried out in a subsequent step, i.e. after windingthe strip which has just been screen printed with the antenna.

As already mentioned, printing the dielectric layer is different forrectangle 18 covering the coils of the antenna. Indeed, the sole purposeof the layer of dielectric over the entire antenna is to prevent thetransfer of the ink onto the back of the tickets, whereas the purpose ofthe dielectric of rectangle 18 is to insulate the coils of the antennafrom conductive strip 20 illustrated in FIG. 3. This rectangle musttherefore be perfectly electrically insulating which is not necessarilya requirement for all of the dielectric layer produced for protectivepurposes. One preferred technique consists in using a print screen, themajority of which is half-tone printed except for the part correspondingto rectangle 18 which is a full-tone screen. This allows for a cover of100% dielectric for rectangle 18 and only 30% dielectric for the rest ofdielectric layer 12.

After the strip has been wound again, the method proceeds to thefollowing step which consists in screen printing the connections fromthe antenna to the chip, i.e. conductive strip 20 from end 14 of antenna10 and a conductive strip 22 from end 16 of the antenna. As illustratedin FIG. 3, this allows the connection of chip 24 in the following step,by fixing the bonding pads of the chip onto the ends of conductivestrips 20 and 22.

It should be noted that the screen printing of conductive bands 20 and22 after printing the protective dielectric layer 12 does not presentthe same ink transfer problem as the antenna. Indeed, the longitudinalcoils of the antenna are located above one another in the reel afterwinding, therefore creating an excess thickness and, consequently, anincreased risk of the frictional transfer of ink onto the back of thetickets due to the pressure caused by this excess thickness. Bycontrast, both conductive strips 20 and 22, with reduced dimensions, arenot located at the same place in the reel resulting from the strip beingwound. Therefore, there is no excess thickness and, consequently, littlerisk of frictional transfer of ink onto the back of the tickets.

Although the method according to the invention has been described withreference to the manufacture of paper tickets, it could also be appliedto the manufacture of contactless cards or any other contactless-typeobjects (labels, tags, etc.) in which the antenna is produced using ascreen printing ink.

1. A method for the multi-step manufacture of contactless tickets orcards including a chip connected to an antenna on a paper support, saidmethod comprising printing in series, using screen printing ink, theantennas on said paper support strip, in fixing a chip on each ticket byconnecting the bonding pads of the chip to the bonding pads of theantenna and in covering said paper strip comprising the screen-printedantennas and the corresponding chips with an adhesive paper strip, eachof the steps being followed by the winding of said paper support stripbefore moving onto the next step; wherein said method includes a stepcomprising covering each of said screen-printed antennas with aprotective layer, applied by printing, said protective layer beingprovided for preventing the screen printing ink from being transferredonto the back of the paper support strip during the successive windingsthereof after each step.
 2. The method according to claim 1, whereinsaid protective layer is a dielectric layer.
 3. The method according toclaim 2, wherein said dielectric layer is printed using a screenprinting ink during screen printing the antenna onto the paper support.4. The method according to claim 3, wherein a part of said dielectriclayer adapted to receive a conductive strip connecting the end of thescreen-printed antenna to a bonding pad of the chip is greater than therest of said dielectric layer.
 5. The method according to claim 4,wherein said part of the dielectric layer adapted to receive saidconductive strip is made up of 100% dielectric, whereas the rest of saiddielectric layer is made up of 30% dielectric.
 6. The method accordingto claim 5, wherein said print screen which is used to produce saiddielectric layer comprises a full-tone screen corresponding to said partadapted to receive said conductive strip, whereas the rest of saiddielectric layer is half-tone printed.
 7. The method according to claim1, wherein said protective layer is applied by screen printing to saidantenna.